Lab Demonstration of Optical Intersatellite Terminal Link and Data Transfer

This paper provides an update on the ongoing TRL6 qualification of the SDA-compatible Honeywell LCT100-Y optical intersatellite link terminal. This terminal consists of a lightweight, unobscured, 11 kg, 10 cm aperture, 2-axis yoke-mounted optical head unit with hemispherical field of regard, a remotely mounted control electronics and transceiver unit. With 2.5 W of optical power the LCT100-Y is designed to achieve link ranges exceeding 11,000 km at 1 Gbps OOK; 6,000 km at 10 Gbps OOK; and coherent links exceeding 9,500 km at 100 Gbps DP-QPSK.Under funding from Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) we are developing a Terminal-to-Terminal optical testbed providing realistic angular selectivity, stray light injection, spacecraft jitter, and range losses associated with on-orbit optical links at various applicable ranges. We performed a preliminary demonstration of link acquisition, tracking, and data transfer using an SDA V2.1-compatible transceiver at 1.25 Gbps.We have demonstrated real time data streaming and have measured bit error rates exceeding SDA specifications.